Re-intro, Cargo conversion, Rochester NY

[Salivanto]

Hello,

I've already posted a little about my project in the cargo trailer conversion section, but I wanted to post a genreal re-introduction about myself here.

I'm a father of three small children aged 2 1/2 to 7 1/7, live in Rochester NY , and make a modest living as computer operator. I enjoy playing all types of musical instruments, learning languages, and cooking on charcoal. I don't usually think of myself as "handy", but maybe I am, seeing as I've recently worked doing rough and finish carpentry and various home repairs, as well as building musical instruments.

As a youth "camping" always meant "backpacking" to me, but in my young-married days, like many people I guess, we enjoyed checking out the big campers and pop-ups at the mall shows, even though we never really thought we'd buy one. At 6'6", one thing I noticed right away is that I can barely stand up in even the biggest hard-sided campers.

On a road-trip one day about three years ago I contemplated the travel-trailers I saw on the road. If onely there were one where you could access the kitchen counter from outside, I thought, then I'd have all the headroom I'd need. A travel-trailer owner told me that such trailers do exist, so I was looking, but it was by chance through a photo-page about dutch oven cooking that I found out about teardrops, and ultimately this forum.

Two years ago I was active here and planning on starting a teardrop project of my own. I'd even started collecting materials, including an old popup shell, a sink, and (most expensive) two complete door and window kits from Camp-Inn. I started to get cold feet. If I hadn't alread invested in doors and windows, I would have persued something more like the "mini camping trailer" which is basically a galley and storage space to support tent camping. In addition, my wife said she wanted something she could sleep inside ... so the project sat.

One suggestion which was given the last time I was here was to convert a cargo trailers. The thought was that with three kids I would need something bigger than a teardrop. I resisted this suggestion for a few reasons. First, I thought (and still think) the older kids should sleep in a tent. I also wanted to keep the trailer under 1000 lbs. I liked the size and stying of the teardrop, and I couldn't see spending a few grand on something and then cutting it up.

Fast forward to this year, we'd been planning a trip to Hungary, but called it off close to the last minute because the flight was far more expensive than we'd anticipated. We decided to use some of our vacation money (and time) to jump-start our project.

So now I have a 5x8 cargo trailer with a roof vent and one camp-inn style door installed (with window), one trip down, and one coming up in a week. The general idea is that the trailer is already enclosed, and I can make a series of improvments, with each one requiring a fairly short time span, after which the trailer will be useful again. When it's all done, I expect to have something like a teardrop, but just a touch larger, yet smaller than a typical tiny travel trailer.

Two years ago I met two local teardrop owners, and seeing my own trailer in the woods, I've got an itch to take it to a rally, but I haven't looked into that yet.

[Cliffmeister2000]

Interesting! Any idea how much the trailer weighs now? What are you planning to tow it with?

Cliff

[Roly Nelson]

Thomas, that is quite a concept. Hope you can post some pics so we can see the results of your efforts.

Roly

[Salivanto]

I've posted one picture so far in the thread I started in the Cargo Trailer Conversion section of this forum. I've got some more which I'll post as soon as I can get them converted to CD-Rom. (My new computer won't read my old 20th century camera cards so my mother in law needs to convert them for us.)

I believe the advertised dry weight of the trailer was 760 pounds. The doors will add a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood in weight, and I'll be adding a galley, which will be as light and simple as possible. The goal is for it to be under 1000 lbs dry.

I've got a Pontiac Trans Sport rated for 1400 pounds when we're carrying passengers. Some day I'd like to get a vehicle with slightly more towing capacity.

Come check out the thread in the Cargo Trailer section.